and all that jazz
December 15, 2020 7:27 PM Subscribe
"When I think of Ann Reinking, I see legs (nyt). Legs in shimmering black tights. Legs in heels. Legs that extend effortlessly to a 6 o’clock extension. They weren’t the only thing that made her dancing so resplendent, but they were the anchor to her daring. Aside from their shape, they had a strength that rooted her body, giving her pelvic isolations a silky sort of groove and her precision a natural, teasing sensuality. Even stretched out on a bed, her legs could tell a story." Tony Award-winning actor, dancer, and choreographer Ann Reinking died on Saturday at age 71.
The Dazzling Razzle of Ann Reinking and Where to See It, by Helen Shaw, for Vulture
The Dazzling Razzle of Ann Reinking and Where to See It, by Helen Shaw, for Vulture
Our year of loss continues with the death of the astonishing Ann Reinking, one of the queens of Broadway. Known best as Bob Fosse’s muse and the bearer of his tradition, she was also a smoky-voiced singer and Tony Award–winning choreographer, an expert in all the arts of crafting a body onstage. Reinking was a link in a great chain of U.S. choreography that passes through Fosse to Jack Cole and beyond, and her delight and humility and belief in that continuous quality is there in her work. But any writing about Ann Reinking is missing the point — not to mention the flex and the ankle roll. It’s best just to watch her in motion.
One of my earliest recognizable crushes was on her portrayal of Miss Farrell in Annie. I had no idea at the time what a legend she was. What an incredible talent, and this is a great loss, deeply felt.
🎩🦵🪑 .
posted by ApathyGirl at 7:57 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
🎩🦵🪑 .
posted by ApathyGirl at 7:57 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
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This is the first time I have ever encountered her. I'm riveted.
posted by vrakatar at 8:34 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
This is the first time I have ever encountered her. I'm riveted.
posted by vrakatar at 8:34 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
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For a lot of people who grew up outside the Broadway orbit, the 1982 movie version of Annie was our first bread crumb on a long, obsessive pathway. Maybe you too saw it on a VHS tape, a scratchy version someone enterprisingly recorded off TV? Reinking’s thrilling portrait of Grace Farrell, the Warbucks secretary whose total love for Annie can only be expressed through dance, was that production’s magic element: the perfectly glamorous, perfectly accepting friend-mother who just wants to provide the little orphan with every luxury.
Oh wow. I have very clear memories of that scene that this just conjured up.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:41 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
For a lot of people who grew up outside the Broadway orbit, the 1982 movie version of Annie was our first bread crumb on a long, obsessive pathway. Maybe you too saw it on a VHS tape, a scratchy version someone enterprisingly recorded off TV? Reinking’s thrilling portrait of Grace Farrell, the Warbucks secretary whose total love for Annie can only be expressed through dance, was that production’s magic element: the perfectly glamorous, perfectly accepting friend-mother who just wants to provide the little orphan with every luxury.
Oh wow. I have very clear memories of that scene that this just conjured up.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:41 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ann Reinking was the absolute best. I was lucky to see her live on Broadway on three separate occasions, and she was the focal point any time she was on stage, even when she was "just" an ensemble member.
Her knowing, angry look under her bowler hat while extending her left leg alllllll the way up before stepping forward and nodding in sinister agreement with fate in "There'll Be Some Changes Made" in All That Jazz is one of those moments in film that lives in my head forever.
. for a true triple (quadruple? quintuple?) threat who was, by all accounts, incredibly kind and funny as well as ridiculously talented and beautiful. Not a death I was expecting, even in this year of years; I'm gutted.
(On due diligence, I see my link is featured in the OP as "legs shimmering in black tights". Well, can't watch it too many times, can you.)
posted by tzikeh at 8:55 PM on December 15, 2020 [9 favorites]
Her knowing, angry look under her bowler hat while extending her left leg alllllll the way up before stepping forward and nodding in sinister agreement with fate in "There'll Be Some Changes Made" in All That Jazz is one of those moments in film that lives in my head forever.
. for a true triple (quadruple? quintuple?) threat who was, by all accounts, incredibly kind and funny as well as ridiculously talented and beautiful. Not a death I was expecting, even in this year of years; I'm gutted.
(On due diligence, I see my link is featured in the OP as "legs shimmering in black tights". Well, can't watch it too many times, can you.)
posted by tzikeh at 8:55 PM on December 15, 2020 [9 favorites]
The Theatre Community Remembers the Life and Legacy of Ann Reinking (Playbill), basically a Twitter roundup. Jason Vesey posted a Reinking high-kick photo with the tweet, "It doesn’t get much better than this. We got to be on the same planet as her y’all. Look at her. Leg already halfway up to Heaven," and Melissa Errico posted a lovely, encouraging note Reinking sent to her daughter Juliette in February, after learning the 11-year-old would be playing Grace Farrell in an Annie production. Thread reader link, "Dancing was like a best friend to me."
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:06 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:06 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
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I'm not a Broadway/musical person, but I knew of Ann Reinking, namely through comedies like Mickey and Maude. And I want to stress, that even this non-musical loving guy loves All That Jazz. It's a very well-made film, and the production of it, of Bob Fosse's life, is even more fascinating.
posted by zardoz at 9:34 PM on December 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
I'm not a Broadway/musical person, but I knew of Ann Reinking, namely through comedies like Mickey and Maude. And I want to stress, that even this non-musical loving guy loves All That Jazz. It's a very well-made film, and the production of it, of Bob Fosse's life, is even more fascinating.
posted by zardoz at 9:34 PM on December 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
Ann Reinking is the cooooolest, I was just watching her performances last month and marveling at her work. So good, rest in peace
posted by yueliang at 12:32 AM on December 16, 2020
posted by yueliang at 12:32 AM on December 16, 2020
Ann Reinking was one of those dancers / performers, like Gwen Verdon and Betty Grable, whose talent was eclipsed by the way the Hollywood studio system and the press marketed them based on their bodies. Ginger Rogers only barely managed to rise above that, and she still got tagged with "He gave her class, she gave him sex" when they talk about her partnership with Fred Astaire.
All this to say that it's not unfair for obits to start with her being known for her amazing legs, because that's what she was perpetually associated with, and you can't leave it out. But at the end of the day, I'd really love it if people remembered the dancer and not the stems. She was really, really good.
Here she is in Annie.
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posted by Mchelly at 6:03 AM on December 16, 2020 [6 favorites]
All this to say that it's not unfair for obits to start with her being known for her amazing legs, because that's what she was perpetually associated with, and you can't leave it out. But at the end of the day, I'd really love it if people remembered the dancer and not the stems. She was really, really good.
Here she is in Annie.
.
posted by Mchelly at 6:03 AM on December 16, 2020 [6 favorites]
Thank you for posting this. (I only really knew her from her iconic performance in Annie, and it's weird to hear she's famous for sexy legs when that role is so not about that.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:51 AM on December 16, 2020
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:51 AM on December 16, 2020
Thanks for that point, Mchelly. I debated whether or not to use that paragraph as the main text, but for me, it captured the magnetism of watching her dance. I grew up dancing in a not-at-all ballet body, legs not long enough, nothing else quite skinny enough. And she had all the ballet gifts - but the way she danced skewered ballet a little bit, and I loved it. My mom, who hated Annie, showed me the dance scenes (well, not Take Off With Me) from All The Jazz before I ever saw her as Grace Farrell. I hope the amount of respect I have for Ann Reinking, and appreciation for her dancing/singing/choreography comes through, even if it starts off with legs.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:03 AM on December 16, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 7:03 AM on December 16, 2020 [5 favorites]
She was incredible in All That Jazz (omg, talk about a performance as meta as possible), I wonder why she did not have more of a film career.
posted by sammyo at 7:10 AM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 7:10 AM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
I agree that in general it's not optimal to boil down a performer's life and career to a physical attribute- but her legs are AMAZING. And IMO that comment was not about "sexy legs" - in fact I doubt that was at all what that writer intended. Ann Reinking's legs are powerful, flexible, expressive, forceful, aggressive, and yes, sexy, but my god, so very much more. Dancers talk with their bodies and her legs could speak, preach, seduce, sing, swing, scream, laugh, all of it, with superlative artistry. Her legs delivered that artistry to audiences in ways that just do not come around very often. A true master of her craft.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:02 AM on December 16, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:02 AM on December 16, 2020 [8 favorites]
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posted by Joey Michaels at 11:00 AM on December 16, 2020
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:00 AM on December 16, 2020
What? Nooo. What a loss. I anticipated the film of Annie like crazy, I was nine and already a fan of the Broadway cast album. My parents didn't actually love taking me to movies, but they took me to Annie, and my mom was just so delighted by the casting of so many heavy-hitter stage actors. She made sure I knew that the luminous Ann Reinking was a big deal even though I obviously was not allowed to watch "All That Jazz" for many years.
posted by desuetude at 1:20 PM on December 16, 2020
posted by desuetude at 1:20 PM on December 16, 2020
and the production of it, of Bob Fosse's life, is even more fascinating.
Oh, you HAVE to check out the recent miniseries about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon! I think it was on FX, ah here it is.
As an Xer, I was between the heights of "Chicago" and "Annie," and right at front center for "All That Jazz," and I didn't even know that that title was based on something much, much bigger.
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posted by Melismata at 11:02 AM on December 17, 2020
Oh, you HAVE to check out the recent miniseries about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon! I think it was on FX, ah here it is.
As an Xer, I was between the heights of "Chicago" and "Annie," and right at front center for "All That Jazz," and I didn't even know that that title was based on something much, much bigger.
.
posted by Melismata at 11:02 AM on December 17, 2020
I grew up in the seventies and eighties, with Fosse and Reinking as household names (at least through the periodicals I used to read)... and I only got around to seeing "A Chorus Line" two years ago.
Reinking burst off the screen. I'm sorry I never saw her perform live notwithstanding many opportunities.
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posted by Sheydem-tants at 12:08 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Reinking burst off the screen. I'm sorry I never saw her perform live notwithstanding many opportunities.
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posted by Sheydem-tants at 12:08 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
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